“And were you?”
“I think it turned out that he was. So I called him a sap, and went away.”
“I hate a sap,” said Reggie with a certain dignity.
“We used to call a sap a groutbags at my private school,” said Ealing.
“Why?”
“I don’t know what else you could call them. I was a groutbags once myself.”
The Babe yawned.
“I feel rather futile,” he said. “I wanted to be amused, and you fellows would go for a walk. Let’s play ‘Kiss in the slipper,’ or something.”
“I hear you played Van John till two this morning,” said Reggie.
The Babe stopped in the middle of his yawn.